ON REVEALING RISK GROUPS REGARDING EMOTIONAL BURN-OUT SYNDROME AMONG MEDICAL WORKERS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Medical workers have become a most affected population group during the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). They were the first to start fighting against an unknown infection and at that stage their psychoemotional statedetermined not only correct evaluations of a situation but also relevant planning regarding control over it.Our research aim was to study the peculiarities of reacting to stress of medical organizations in an emergencyepidemic situation in order to reveal potential risk groups for developing emotional burnout syndrome.We applied our own author’s anonymous online poll available at Google platform to examine psychoemotional state ofmedical workers. The poll had a built-in “Scale of perceived stress-10” that included two sub-scales; one of them measureda subjectively perceived level of the situation strain and the other, the amounts of efforts made by medical workers to overcomeit. The poll was performed in November–December 2020; overall, 638 medical workers took part in it. They were ofdifferent age and sex and had different positions and working experience.We established great variability in individual levels of overstrain as per the stress perception sub-scale (Ех < 0;Ех = –0.59) with more “low” than “high” values as per this sub-scale (Аs > 0; Аs = 5.66). Having analyzed variabilityof values as per the stress overcoming sub-scale, we revealed that they were homogenous (Ех > 0; Ех = 3.98) with prevailing“high” values (Аs < 0; Аs = –6.97).Medical workers with their working experience being shorter than 5 years turned out to be a risk group with the mostdestructive reactions to long-term affecting stress factors at work and at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart fromthem, high mental risks were also detected for workers who treated patients with COVID-19 as well as those who had previouslyhad the coronavirus infection.The research allowed obtaining actual data on psychoemotional state of medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemicand determining potential risk groups regarding developing emotional burnout syndrome. We substantiated the necessity toconstantly provide psychological trainings for medical workers with their focus on peculiarities of their reacting during the firstmeeting with destabilizing factors and with further adjustment of educational programs provided for potential risk groups